Research done by the faculty at the University of Colorado has revealed that 21 percent of doctors across the United States are dismissing children from their care if their parents have chosen not to vaccinate them against childhood diseases, says a press release on eurekalert.org.

More than 800 physicians across the country were surveyed by Sean O’Leary, MMD, MPH, associate professor of pediatrics and his associates, and more than one of every five responding physicians said they had dismissed non-vaccinated children.

O’Leary said, “Even though the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages providers from dismissing families, some providers continue to do so.  Instead of dismissing families, we need a better understanding of the reasons for vaccine refusal to find evidence-based strategies for communication that are effective at convincing hesitant parents to vaccinate.”

In their findings published in the journal Pediatrics, O’Leary and his team wrote, “Pediatricians who dismiss families for vaccine refusal are more likely to practice in a private setting, to be from the South, and to be in states without philosophical exemption laws and/or without more difficult exemption policies.”

The researchers noted that physicians in states that allow for philosophical exemptions from vaccinations were less like to turn patients away, but quickly added that it was not clear whether those states’ policies could account for the lower rates of dismissal.

The article continued, “It may be that in states that allow philosophical exemptions, physicians perceive vaccine refusal as more societally acceptable because of the exemption law and therefore are less likely to dismiss families from their practice.  Alternatively, attitudes in these states may be driving policy, and therefore because vaccine refusal is more of a social norm, dismissing families is less acceptable for physicians.”

The researchers also pointed out that a small number of parents that do not allow their children to be vaccinated can create a much larger problem, as evidenced by a number of recent outbreaks of measles and mumps.

The article contends that states with a philosophical exemption and who allow for a relatively easy exemption from vaccinations have lower rates of vaccination, and, as a consequence, higher rates of vaccine-preventable diseases.

The survey, which was designed to assess the physicians that dismiss non-vaccinated families, and to explore their reasons for the dismissals, was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it was administered through the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center.